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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2006

Shaun Micheel

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

KELLY ELBIN: 2003 PGA champion Shaun Micheel joins us today. Shaun is in with a four round total of 13 under par, 275, finishing alone in second place in the 88th PGA Championship.

Shaun, some comments, please, on your round today and the week as a whole.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I guess to begin with, I was excited when I got to the golf course on Monday and just saw how much it really reminded me of Oak Hill. I've said that, I think, every day. It really did, just with the way the course set up, the shape of the fairways, the height you have rough and the trees and everything else.

I was playing some decent golf coming in, but I think what was holding me back was not making enough birdies and missing some key shots that held me back. I found that out at Milwaukee a couple weeks ago when I had a chance to win there.

But I had just a really nice week. I played well. Today I didn't drive the ball quite as well as I would have liked, but I'm not sure even if I would have hit every fairway, I would have been able to catch Tiger. He's too good.

I just had a nice round of golf today and I hung in there. I made every single putt that I needed to make all week. I'm not sure I missed one putt inside of about eight feet. I can't think of one that I missed. You know, that's obviously the key. I just didn't have enough of those for birdies.

KELLY ELBIN: You did have a birdie on 1. Could you go through that and the rest of the card with birdies and bogeys?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah. 1, I left myself actually a little bit farther back today than I would have liked. I think with the different wind direction, I went ahead and elected to hit a 3 wood just to get the ball in the fairway. I hit a nice 7 iron in there about 15 feet and got off to a nice start, kind of as I've done all week.

I didn't hit a very good tee shot on the 4th hole. I seem to have always struggled on that tee. I kind of had to take my medicine on that hole and make a bogey.

Came back with a nice birdie on 5, which actually was unexpected because I hit it just left off the tee into the trees and had to pitch out.

But managed to make a couple of nice saves coming in, a couple 6, 7 footers on the front and then capped it off with a birdie on 9.

Made the turn, and 10, had about ten feet and missed that one.

And then got to 11, 13 and 14, just I played 11 pretty well all week. I had one par and I think that was yesterday, so I really played that hole well. Kind of a tough break there on 12, hit the tree and dropped down, left myself kind of a long shot in.

Then on 13, I holed a pitch shot from must have been 40 yards, certainly something that you don't expect. But I followed that up with a nice birdie on 14 after Sergio hit two of the best shots I've seen in a long time and made eagle on 14.

Then kind of came in, made some nice pars on 15, 16, 17 and then just hit a poor drive and maybe should have hit 3 wood on 18. I don't really know what I was trying to accomplish by hitting a driver, but anyway, I made a bogey. It was just kind of not a good way to finish, but I wasn't going to win anyway.

Q. You've had considerable success with your short time in the PGA Championship, a victory in '03, a win this year. Any particular reason why the PGA has been one that has been special for you?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Oh, I don't know. When I won in '03, it was my first time into the PGA. And I don't know, it's just something about the golf tournament. It's just something about professionals setting up golf tournaments for professionals and just letting us play golf and enjoy golf. I know there's been a lot said about some of the low scores this week, but in my view, it's fun to actually have four different styles of major championship golf.

I typically play tough courses well, and I like to say I like to drive the ball, and I've never been one to go out and shoot 8 , 9 under on a daily basis, so Bob Hope is a tough tournament for me to play well in.

I don't know, I missed the cut last year I think by one, which is extremely disappointing because I love this championship so much. But again, I suppose I didn't have any expectations of myself this week. I was playing well and certainly wasn't looked at to even be in contention. I'm just pleased to have finished off a nice four day tournament.

Q. Second place, how much does that do to your confidence? That's not a win, but again, it's a pretty good second?

SHAUN MICHEEL: It is. I'm extremely excited. I haven't had a chance really to process it yet. Again, I've seen some things coming around the last four or five months, but I think I was just so far behind where I needed to be mentally to really compete on a consistent basis, I just had gone through so many bad things, just so many bad habits I had gotten myself into, and that just bred lack of confidence, and you can't play this game if you don't have confidence.

I had confidence today, and I didn't hit it that way. I think that's what ultimately pulled me through, that I was putting so well, that I felt so good, that as long as I could get around the green that I could still score, and I just kind of fed off that. I had to really kind of dig deep, I suppose, today to manage to squeak out a score because I just didn't hit it like I did yesterday.

Maybe I hit it too well yesterday. Just trying to back that up, I just wasn't able to do it. It does a lot for me.

Q. When you got here, I know you talked early in the week, you said how this reminds you of another place where you've had big success. How often does something like that happen, and how does that translate and transfer into the skills that you can have on another golf course?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Each and every week you're going to a different course, and of course defending at Whistling Straits, that was so different from Oak Hill, and Baltusrol was a little bit similar.

You know, certain golf courses fit your eye. Look at guys week in and week out; there's some guys that play certain courses very well and some guys just don't. I mean, I just found that when I got here that this course, one, reminded me of it, but, another, just gave me confidence that I had success at a golf course similar to this with tree lined fairways and pretty deep rough and very receptive greens.

Oak Hill was very similar to this because if you didn't hit the fairway and you chipped it out, you could actually make a putt for par. You weren't having to putt over ranges like you might find at a U.S. Open or even at The Masters. So the greens were very fair.

Look, the guys are good out here. That's why the scores were so low, because the greens were in such pristine shape. This is one of the best looking golf courses that we've played all year, and my hat's off to the superintendent and the staff, because regardless of what score they wanted to have win this championship, I think they got a great championship. All the players raved about it.

Back to your question, I think it's just finding a golf course that suits your eye where you're comfortable off the tee, and I seemed to have that this week.

Q. You're the highest finisher of those trying to get in the Ryder Cup that aren't already in, and obviously because of your season so far you didn't get enough points. But if you were going to see Tom Lehman in the hall right now, what would be your argument to him outside of today or this week of why you should be on the team, and do you expect a call at all?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Oh, I don't think so. I don't expect a call. You know, I was actually lobbying for Davis Love. I talked to Corey Pavin on Friday, and I went up to him on the edge of the putting green, and I said, Look, if you're looking for a guy that's playing some really good golf, I'd look towards him. I mean, I don't know how he finished, but in my view he was swinging about as well as I've seen him swinging. He was just playing great golf.

I think I could help a team, not saying this would be the year, but I just think that I'm not afraid. I think I showed that today, that I went out and gutted out a score. I don't know, I'm a grinder. I don't throw in the towel, and I think that's kind of what you need to have in a player because it's so challenging. Not only are you dealing with the golf but you're having to deal with all the stuff outside the golf with the fans, and of course playing for your country.

I would certainly love to have an opportunity to play because I think I could help the team. Chad Campbell and I a couple years ago finished runner up to Sluman and Hank Kuehne there at the Shark shootout, and I think we did great together. I think he and I would be a good fit for one another.

But I'll work on 2008 and 2007 Presidents Cup team. I suppose that's where my focus will be now.

Q. If you don't mind another Ryder Cup question, how would you assess the U.S. and European teams this year? Who would you say is the favorite going in?

SHAUN MICHEEL: If I looked at it, I suppose each and every year you look at it on paper and I think that the world's best golfers are here playing on the PGA TOUR and then look at their record in the Ryder Cup, I mean, obviously you've got to tip your hats to the Europeans. One, they're playing at home, they've won it a few years in a row now. They're just really solid. I'm looking down the team, you've got some veteran players, but you've got Vaughn Taylor and J.J. Henry and Zach Johnson and Brett, I don't know who's going to fall in or out of that. The PGA of America did something this year to try to get the best players that were playing well at the time. I guess a lot will be argued as to whether or not that was a good system or not.

But all those guys that are on there deserve to be there, regardless of how you add the points up at the end of the day. Maybe it's nice to have some new guys, new young guys playing in there. They're already surrounded by Tiger and Phil, Jim, Chad and David and DiMarco. Those guys are veteran players. That's enough guys on there. Let's get some young guys on there.

Q. It's obviously no secret that Tiger is back on a roll again. I'm just curious what your take is on where his game is in relation to everybody else right now, and is it getting to be sort of a 2000 ish feeling again with what Tiger is doing?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I suppose. He's obviously well, he's still an incredible putter, and he's just such an intimidating force, really. For him to go out and I said this earlier, for him to hit 11 out of 14 fairways on this golf course where you basically are having to hit wood off the tee at the Open Championship, I don't know how many drivers he hit, probably not more than oh, he hit one, okay. So he's hitting a lot of 2 irons, and he was just in control of his game.

That's what you've got to have. You've got to have control of your golf ball. When you pull the driver out, sometimes you lose that control, but he wasn't forced to do that. I don't know how many drivers he hit this week, either. He probably wasn't forced to hit as many because I know the 7,500 yards was the longest in PGA history, but it really didn't play that because there's a lot of doglegs and there's a lot of holes you can kind of cut some yardage off. He's going to be dominating whether he's playing well or not. Tiger has a unique ability to play well when he thinks he's not playing well. I mean, we all kind of smirk and laugh when he says he's got his B game, but that's better than most of our A games. He's just that good.

He doesn't do anything silly. He doesn't make any mistakes. He's so mentally tough there, I'm not sure anything ever bothers him. I wish I had that feeling just once.

Q. Yesterday everybody was predicting that you'd have to go low today, and yet in the final six groups, you and Tiger were the only ones to break 70. I was wondering how surprised are you by that, and what do you think the reason is that people weren't able to go low today when they've been able to go low all week?

A. Because it's the Sunday of a major championship, I think. I can sum it up that way. There's some holes out there that you can score early on, but if you start getting a little wayward in the beginning and you don't get off to that good start, then you're kind of holding on for dear life.

The pins were tucked, the wind was changing on every shot. It was amazing to me how different the golf course played today, even with the same conditions.

I am very surprised that someone didn't go out and shoot a low number today, because I think that was out there. I know that Dean Wilson and Chad Campbell early this morning had great rounds going, and I don't know how they finished up. I suppose it's a little surprising to me that someone didn't go out and have a really low score. Sergio and I, we just didn't hit enough fairways between us, really, to really get anything really low. But I think just because it's a Sunday of a major championship is why you didn't see that.

Q. Did you change anything mechanically in your putting to have the good results this week, or was it more mindset?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Actually I've been working a lot with Mike Shannon early in the year. I went to Doral and we started working on something on Wednesday, and in two weeks I went to 140 something in putting to around 40th in two weeks.

There were some mechanical changes that we made, just grip, raising my hands, keeping my elbows in a little bit, so there was a lot of things like that. My new teacher Matt Killen told me on Monday and I got a new putter on Monday, and I don't usually do that, so I imagine changing my putter and working on my stroke in the same week and having a good finish, but Matt just told me to keep my elbows in and keep my hands up a little higher and use my shoulders a little bit more, and I did that very well.

My speed was great all week until the last few holes, and I think that was just a bit of Sunday nerves, just trying to not really trying to get it to the house but just I got sick and tired of leaving myself four and five feet, and I kept leaving myself four and five feet. Yeah, there were some mechanical things that I did on Monday that really seemed to help.

Q. Is there any way for you to compare the level of your game this week and what it was in winning at Oak Hill?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I think it was about the same, you know, and if Tiger wouldn't have been in the field, I would have won this week. But I think very similar. I go back and I think about, I didn't drive it all that well on Sunday, but I hit a lot of great iron shots and I hit a lot of great putts. I think it was very similar to how I played back then.

I was in control of my distance all day. You know, I didn't hit a lot of close iron shots, but I was pretty much I probably only missed I'm guessing maybe three or four greens all day, maybe one more than that. But it was very similar. I hit every shot solid. I didn't feel any nerves out there. I was very excited, and I found that to be the case yesterday. I was just really excited to get out there and play as opposed to, oh, God, I wish I didn't have to go out there today. I wish it could be tomorrow. That was a great feeling, and that's when I knew that I was going to do well today when I felt that.

I came out a little bit earlier than I normally would. I have a two year old at home that wouldn't leave me alone, was kind of screaming and yelling and I needed some time to myself, so I came out earlier and listened to some music on my ipod. I did the same thing I did yesterday. I didn't want to change it up because I had such a good day yesterday, I wanted to do the same thing. That's pretty much all I did.

Again, it was just a nice week and a nice comfortable week for me.

KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Shaun hit 12 greens in regulation today, hit 15 in regulation yesterday.

Q. As you move into your late 30s, do you take heart in the fact that a lot of golfers, especially lately, have done well into their 40s? Do you take heart in that and see good years ahead?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I do. It's amazing to me how good some of the younger players are. Look at Sergio and Lucas Glover and Vaughn Taylor, a lot of these guys. How they're able to come out and compete at this level at that early of an age, and I think that's a testament to what college golf is nowadays. You have the Nationwide Tour that's breeding a lot of players and giving them some good competition. Loren Roberts is a good friend of mine, and Loren, I don't know, he won Bay Hill, his first tournament, until maybe he was 37 or 38, something like that. You know, golf is a unique sport. Most other sports you're done by the time you're 37.

I just think there's so much to learn in golf, and some of us learn it later than others. I hope I'm that way. You know, I'm not a model of fitness by any means. I try to do my stretching and everything else that I need to do and I work on my game and I work on my game the right way. So it's a nice feeling, I think, to know that hopefully my better years are ahead of me.

KELLY ELBIN: Shaun Micheel, finishing 2nd in the 88th PGA Championship.

End of FastScripts.

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